Music Theory
What you'll learn
- The definition of music
- The elements of music (rhythm & pitch)
- Division of pitch into melody and harmony
- Rhythmic notation
- Understanding relative durations of sound
- The whole, half, quarter, 8th and 16th notes
- Why notes are named the way they are
- Relative durations vs. assigning numerical values
- The unit of measurement
- Beat
- Tempo
- Meter
- Distinguishing between rhythm and meter
- Bar lines and measures
- Time signatures
- 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 meters
- Determining the meter without a time signature
- Natural division of rhythms
- Strong and weak pulses
- Rests
- Assigning numerical values to rests
- The whole rest and meter
- Dotted notes
- Numerical values of dotted notes
- History of dotted notes
- Dotted rhythms
- The 3:1 ratio in dotted rhythms
- The tie
- Ties vs. dotted notes
- Advantages and disadvantages of notating with ties vs. dots
- Re-designation of the unit
- 3/8 and 6/8 meters
- New numerical values of notes
- Understand relative durations with regard to a new unit of measurement
- Strength of pulses
- Designating the half note as the unit
- Notating 2/2 meter or “cut” time
- Numerical values of note durations in 2/2 meter
- Comparison of 4/4 meter and 2/2 meter
- Reasons for 2/2 meter
- Classifying meters
- Simple meter and compound meter
- Duple, triple, and quadruple meter
- Complex meter
- Artificial divisions of the beat or beats
- Artificial division of parts of the beat
- Common types of tuplets
- Definition of triplets & duplets
- Identifying triplets & duplets
- Ratio of triplets & duplets
- Numerical value of triplets & duplets
- Artificial divisions in relation to simple and compound meters
- Sound waves
- Frequency
- Indefinite vs. definite pitch
- Modern vs. ancient definition of pitch
- Pitch experiments
- Introduction to the staff
- How the mind sees number
- Ledger lines
- Clefs
- Movement on the staff (step, skip, repeat)
- The musical alphabet
- Letter names on the staff
- The grand staff
- Direction of note stems (and rationale)
- Introduction to the keyboard
- Groups of black keys
- Letter names of keys
- Correlation of staff to the keyboard
- Half steps and whole steps
- Sharps and flats on the keyboard
- Enharmonic equivalents
- Enharmonic keyboard notes
- Reading sharps and flats on the staff
- Sharps and flats within measures
- The natural sign
- The definition of interval
- Melodic vs. harmonic intervals
- Identifying intervals on the keyboard
- Identifying intervals on the staff
- Ratios and intervals
- Pythagoras and the monochord
- Consonance and dissonance
- Definition and history of the modern scale
- The major scale
- Intervals and the major scale
- Basis of the scale
- Basis of the whole tone
- Greek tetrachords
- Greek semi tone and whole tone
- Constructing scales on the keyboard
- Constructing scales on the staff
- Definition of "key"
- The key signature
- The circle of 5ths
- The order of sharps
- The order of flats
- How to determine the key from the sharps/flats
- How to determine how many and which sharps/flats are in a given key
- Enharmonic keys
- Interval number vs. interval quality
- Major, minor and perfect interval qualities
- Determining an intervals’ number and quality
- Connection of interval qualities to the major scale
- Identifying intervals on the staff
- Augmented and diminished interval qualities
- How augmented and diminished intervals are formed
- The double sharp
- Why the double sharp is necessary
- The double flat
- Why the double flat is necessary
- The tritone
- Abbreviations for interval qualities
- Enharmonic intervals
- Complementary intervals
- Which qualities, when inverted, become which qualities
- Simple intervals
- Compound intervals
- Reducing compound intervals
- How to determine the quality of compound intervals
- Open and close harmony
- The difference between intervals and chords
- Major and minor chords
- Deriving the ratio of the major and minor 3rds using the monochord
- The Pythagoras experiment and the major chord
- Block and broken chords
- Augmented and diminished chords
- Music’s move from the horizontal to the vertical
- Mathematical proportions of the major, minor, augmented and diminished triads
- Understanding the harmonic mean
- The harmonic mean and the major chord
- Understanding the arithmetic mean
- The arithmetic mean and the minor chord
- The geometric mean and the augmented and diminished chords
- Relation of chords to the major scale
- The number of possible triads constructed from the pitches of the major scale
- Order and quantity of triad qualities formed from the major scale
- Roots of chords, scales, and keys
- Comparison of the major and minor scales
- Tetrachords in minor scales
- The natural minor scale
- Constructing natural minor scales on the keyboard & staff
- The harmonic minor scale
- The melodic minor scale
- Ascending vs. descending melodic minor scale
- Constructing harmonic minor scales on the keyboard & staff
- Constructing melodic minor scales on the keyboard & staff
- Relative keys
- Determining the relative minor
- Determining the relative major
- Determining the key of music with shared key signatures
- Parallel keys
- Difference between parallel and relative keys
- Relation of chords to the natural minor scale
- Order and quantity of triad qualities formed from the natural minor scale
- Relation of chords to the harmonic minor scale
- Order and quantity of triad qualities formed from the harmonic minor scale
- The major scale degrees
- Naming the scale degree using Roman numerals
- Naming triads using Roman numerals
- Benefit to using degree vs. letter name
- Primary chords and their importance
- Relationship between chords
- Chord inversions
- Root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion
- Intervals in chord inversions
- The root rule
- How to identify chord inversions by name, quality and inversion
- Voices of a chord
- Voice leading
- Inversions and the primary chords
- Chord progressions
- Use of inversions to improve transition between chords
- Introduction to function
- Function names of the scale degrees
- Extending the triad
- Dominant seventh chords
- Other names and notation of the dominant seventh chord
- Why the dominant seventh chord is named the way it is
- Inversion of the dominant seventh chord
- 3rd inversion
- Finding the root in a dominant seventh chord
- How to identify a dominant seventh chord
- Dominant seventh chords with missing notes
- Major 7th chords
- Minor 7th chords
- Diminished 7th chords
- Musical punctuation
- Perfect authentic cadence
- Imperfect authentic cadence
- Half cadence
- Plagal cadence
- Deceptive cadence
- Hexatonic scale
- Whole tone scale
- Chromatic scale
- Pentatonic scale
- Tonal music
- Tonal centers
- Polytonal music
- Atonal music
- Free atonal
- Strict atonal
- Twelve-tone technique
- Tone rows
- The ancient Greek modes
- History of the church modes
- Modern modes
- The harmonic series
- Overtones
- Fundamental of a pitch
- Complex vibration of a string
- What the numbers of the harmonic series express
- Hearing overtones (and experiment)
- Timbre
- Nature’s hierarchy of harmonic sound
- Objective measurement of consonance and dissonance
- History of consonance and dissonance
- Tuning pitches
- Brief history of tuning systems
- Pythagorean tuning
- Just intonation
- Equal temperament
- Definition of cents
- Tuning of the modern piano
- Benefits and shortcomings of the different tuning systems
- Apps that demonstrate and compare some of the tuning systems
- Overview of the four main periods of western art music
Requirements
- no previous musical knowledge is needed
Description
Why should I learn music theory? Isn't it just "theoretical" knowledge that I won't really use? Nothing could be further from the truth! Music theory also has many practical applications. A musician who has studied music theory has a huge advantage over a musician who has not. Not only will they read music more fluently, their performances will be more musical because they will understand the various elements of music and how all the parts work together. Song writers and composers with a background in music theory will also have a huge advantage over those without such a background. In fact, for those who want to write music, there is nothing more important than having a firm understanding of music theory.
Why You Should Take This Course:
you will be learning from a professional musician and award-winning composer
the course is in-depth and covers all levels
the material is presented in a straight forward and easy to understand approach
the videos and PDFs get right to the point, and do not ramble on for lengthy amounts of time saying very little and leaving you confused
you will go beyond just definitions and terms and get the added benefit of learning the "why" behind the subject matter
Includes:
112 lectures
over 350 diagrams
over 90 audio examples
369 memory questions
45 on-line quizzes
nearly 1,000 quiz questions
exercises, experiments and downloadable music apps
Who this course is for:
- those who want more than just definitions and terms, but also want the "why"
- beginners to advanced music students
- musicians who want to improve their reading and musical performance
- songwriters and composers (a firm grasp of music theory is necessary to excel in your art)
- any person wanting to learn more about music
Featured review
Instructor
- 4.7 Instructor Rating
- 5,771 Reviews
- 30,407 Students
- 10 Courses
Jonathan Peters is an award-winning composer currently residing in the beautiful state of Colorado. Since 1990 he has worked as a composer, conductor, arranger, recording artist, educator, and author.
Peters’ music has been featured multiple times on NPR’s Peabody award-winning show Performance Today. His works have been performed by orchestras throughout the United States, and have also been performed internationally. He has won multiple awards and recognitions, such as 1st place in the 1996 Composers Today Contest. His 50 plus works include 2 full length operas, a symphony, orchestral works, chamber music, choral pieces, and works for solo piano.
Mr. Peters is the author of the Scholastic Music Series, a collection of educational CDs that use music as a tool to teach various academic subjects. His CD, The Constellations - A Guide to the Orchestra, received the highest starred review from School Library Journal and is carried in libraries throughout the country.
He is also the author of nine books, including six academic books on music and three children’s books with downloadable music. Besides teaching piano privately, he also gives on-line instruction in music theory, music composition, four-part writing, counterpoint, and orchestration. His on-line courses have been taken by tens of thousands of students from over a hundred countries.
Mr. Peters holds a B.A. in liberal arts from Thomas Aquinas College and continued his graduate work towards a M.M. in music composition at California State University Northridge, which included areas of study in advanced composition, theory, orchestration, and film scoring.